A woman, convicted of murder, shouts before she is taken to be executed in Ghangzhou, April 11, 2001
© Reuters
The New York Times has some encouraging information about China:
China’s legislature on Tuesday barred all but the nation’s highest court from approving death sentences, a move that state media called the country’s biggest change to capital punishment in more than 20 years.
China is believed to account for most of the world’s court-ordered executions, putting to death hundreds of people a year for crimes ranging from murder to such nonviolent offenses as tax evasion. Human rights groups have been protesting what they call miscarriages of justice and the extensive, arbitrary use of capital punishment.
The change, which will take effect on Jan. 1, 2007, ”is believed to be the most important reform of capital punishment in China in more than two decades,” the official Xinhua News Agency said.
The Supreme People’s Court announced last year it would start reviewing death sentences, ending a 23-year-old practice of allowing provincial courts to have final review. In June, state media said the court had begun hiring dozens of judges for the task.
Of course the Supreme People’s Court is far from perfect:
In December 2003, a purported gang boss who said he was tortured into confessing to corruption charges was executed in the northeastern city of Shenyang in an anti-graft crackdown.
A provincial court had issued a reprieve, citing the possibility that the torture claims might be true, but the Supreme People’s Court overruled that decision and ordered his immediate death.
But this change in China may safe quite some lives. In cases like this we should never forget that one innocent person saved is highly important. “He who saves one, saves the world” is a principle I deeply believe in.
Of course, as I have said before, I oppose the death penalty in just about all cases. The only possible exception might be high treason, but that’s it.
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